People come and go all the time in our community, and I’m noticing that some senior leaders are moving on this fall. I’m always sad when people I love and respect leave – but for the board members and managing directors tasked with replacing them, there’s little time for regrets: they need to act fast.
That’s why I’m recommending Finding a New Leader by Scott Bechtler-Levin of IdeaEncore as a first-stop site for resources on successful leadership transition. Of course he recommends planning well in advance, and even includes materials on developing future leaders from the inside, but he includes a Sample Emergency Transition Plan for those faced with an unexpected departure. The Role of the Board of Directors in Executive Transition will be especially useful for boards concerned about what’s expected of them.
Even if your core leadership team is solidly in place, I recommend using the materials on succession planning to ensure that you’re prepared when change happens – even though, like you, I hope you won’t be needing them for a long time to come.
The leaders I’m thinking about in this piece are all leaving behind a stellar legacy. But if you are ever called on to turn around an organization in trouble (which I have done), this piece by Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, talks about the challenges and rewards of starting from scratch to create and communicate a new corporate culture of success.
